Vows
by Avenue Potter
Summary: Ed needs to stop Lee's marriage to Jim, but it's not because he's still in love with her as Oswald fears . . . or is it? You be the judge in this fix-it fic! This one's not for the faint of heart, cause it ain't no fluffy bunny fic. Then again, how many of those do I really write?


"I've gotta fix it," Ed mumbles, nervously tweaking some knobs in his makeshift engineering lab he had set up in the library. Thinking, thinking. "I've GOT to fix it."

"Fix what?" Oswald asks him. He and that annoying _dog_, have just been sitting around watching him for the better part of an hour – that is, after he had delivered the devastating news to Ed.

He won't even look over at his friend, in his suit all crumpled up on a couch, getting dog hair all over it. Ugh, why had he named that _thing_ after him?

"I've gotta fix it. Not much time."

"I can't _hear_ you?" Oswald mockingly cups a hand to his ear.

"I've got less than a month. . . how am I going to do this?" Ed says to himself – just to himself - as he moves some papers around on a workbench, looking for inspiration. Unfortunately, his voice is loud enough for Oswald to hear. Oswald stands up from the couch after gently placing his _precious doggie_ down and walks over to him.

"What's this I'm hearing about 'a month'?"

"Go away, Oswald," Ed growls, annoyed at his intrusion.

"You know, a month is not anywhere on our timetable for building this submarine. We need it built by –"

"The wedding," Ed says lowly.

"Have the submarine ready by the wedding? Pah!" Oswald says.

"No," Ed says, grabbing him by the vest and pulling him close. He can feel his heart race. "Jim and Lee are getting married. And you _know _that's not right."

Oswald looks into Ed's dark eyes, fierce with menace. "Okay, Ed, I understand. Time for a little vengeance, eh?"

Ed releases Oswald, and he puts back his ruffled feathers.

"That's not what this is." The dark look is still in Ed's eyes. "Not at all."

"Awww. . ." Oswald whines and the 'Edward' on the floor starts up a soft, but mournful howl. "Don't tell me you're still in love with her? After all you and I have been through. . .?"

Ed doesn't answer. Instead, he takes off his coveralls, replaces them with the emerald suit that's been hanging neatly in the corner, and dons his hat.

"I need to save the princess," Ed says, matter-of-factly. "And that means you and I have got some work to do."

Oswald groans.

* * *

A sprinkling of guests at the GCPD surround a candle-lit dais that had been prepared for Lee Thompkins' marriage to Jim Gordon - it had been placed where Jim and Harvey's twin desks had been for years. The guests seated there there were the ones closest to the couple, where other more distant friends and associates were to watch the ceremony from below, down in the bullpen of the GCPD.

Jim himself awaits the arrival of his bride on the daiswith Harvey.

Ed and Oswald are surveying everything from their hiding place above, waiting for _just _the right moment to spring into action.

And then there she is, bedecked in a white dress that looks like a power suit, reflecting the strong woman that she is.

**Lee.**

Ed gulps as she descends the stairs to where her groom awaits her. She's gorgeous, glowing. She looks _happy. _He almost feels guilty for what he's about to do, and yet he knows it's for the best.

The guests who had stood up out of respect for the procession of the bride are now told to take their seats by Harvey.

"Belay that order!" Ed shouts.

"Wha -?" Everyone who had assembled for the wedding looks up towards his voice, but Ed is nowhere to be seen. He's obscured himself.

"Now, Oswald," he whispers so quietly only the two of them can hear – they're shoulder to shoulder up in the rafters.

Oswald dispatches the dark green glitter, and Ed descends along a rope that had also been obscured all the way down to the corner of the daisHe is still unseen by the crowd, enshrouded as he and everyone else is now within the cloak of the glitter mist.

He steps up to the dais, attempting to situate himself between Jim and Lee. Pulling crystalline glitter from his pocket, he sprays a small mist, circling around himself, carefully trying to uncover the bride and groom, which he does on the first try. As soon as they see each other, they race to cling to each other, carelessly pushing Harvey out of the way - oops, can't have Harvey embroiled in this little tete a tete. This is between Jim, Ed and Lee.

"Oswald, get Harvey!"

"'Get Harvey'? What does that even _mean_?" Harvey says as he fades back into obscurity.

Jim and Lee are shocked, and look around for their missing friend.

"Who did that? I heard a voice."

"It was Ed," Lee says, in a long-suffering tone.

Ed covers himself in the crystalline glitter and then tucks it away swiftly before announcing himself with a flourish. "Indeed, it was!"

"Ed, what are you -" Jim steps forward, but is halted by the touch of Ed's gloved hand. He becomes as stiff as a board within seconds - a wooden board.

Ed unceremoniously pushes him to the floor. "Oops, he belly-flopped. Can't have that, now, can we?"

"Ed, what the hell are you doing?" Lee asks as Ed strains to flip Jim over.

"A little help here?" he asks.

"What?!"

"Look, if you don't help me out, I could touch _you_ with my poison glove as well, make you as stiff as a piece of –"

"Ivy. . ." Lee breathes.

"- wood. Yes, Ivy. Nice deduction." Ed grins, pulling his hand from beneath Jim and looking at it, before holding it up to her. "This one is one of my favorite concoctions of hers."

"In the infamous words of 'The Riddler' –" Lee's eyes narrow. "'Why would I help _you_?'"

Without answering her, he immediately goes back to Jim and finally gets him flipped over. Then, he removes the poison glove and pulls a pistol out of his pants instead. "Because I could _always _do this."

Ed shoots Jim, but not in the heart. Instead, he aims for the liver. He wants him to suffer for a while, just like he had made Lee suffer.

"Oh, my God," Lee crouches down by Jim's side, trying to stop the bleeding, but there's nothing to press against, he's as stiff as a board - the blood just keeps coming. Ed just watches her, shaking his head. She really has wasted SO much of herself on this man.

"Okay, it's showtime!" Ed says when he grows bored of it all.

"What does that even mean?"

Lee turns her tear-stained face towards him, and he tries hard to ignore how devastated she looks. He's not trying to hurt her, he's trying to **save** her. But she won't understand that – not for a while, if ever. But some things must be done.

"Oswald," Ed calls up into space, and shortly thereafter, an empty chair is illuminated in the dark, as if ready for a solo act. At least one of the guests was up and about, having vacated their seat, just as Ed had anticipated.

Ed leaves the space he's in with Lee to retrieve the chair and bring it back to the dias, careful not to knock over the candles that had been lit all around it, even though he can't even see them.

"What's that?" Lee asks, standing up now, her hands on her hips, having given up on doing anything more to help Jim.

"It's for _you_," Ed says and gives a little bow, presenting the chair.

She stares at him distrustfully, and yet still takes the seat . . . albeit with caution.

Ed grins - she had fallen for the trap. She should have trusted her instincts.

He circles behind the chair and silently removes the rope from its hiding place. She doesn't quite understand what's happening – she can't quite let herself believe it when he makes the first loop around her and pulls tight. He knows he has to work fast, because the element of surprise will wear off almost immediately.

But he once reaches a point where he's gotten her immobile, all the work he's done to tie her up - and how close he's had to get to her to do it - inadvertently causes him to breathe in her scent - many many times. And it's got him panting, wanting, longing, _yearning _for her once more. But it's over. Fuck Oswald! How dare he accuse him of still being in love with her - she just had her charms, is all.

As he continues, some of the noises she's making as he ties knots in unnecessary places, don't exactly sound like fear, they sound more like . . . _Mmmm._

Perhaps he has his own charms as well. He draws a finger lightly across her neck, and by now, his hand is devoid of any rope.

"Do you remember when we used to do this?" he whispers in her ear, the tip of his nose circling her earlobe.

That's _definitely_ a moan of pleasure he hears.

"Lee. . ."

"Ed, I can't go back to you. I made my choice. You need to move on."

His nose dips to her neck, his lips caress her shoulder. She is silent - not asking him to stop - and so his hands reach down to touch her in all the right places.

He sees Jim, prone on the floor, staring at them in horror and Ed grins in triumph. Lee's head is tipped back – she doesn't see what he sees. He hopes that means she doesn't care, but he knows better.

Looking back down, he bites her neck, almost drawing blood. She moans with frustration – but what kind?

"Please. . ." she finally gasps.

Please what? Please stop. Or please _don't_ stop . . ?

"I want to marry _Jim_. Please don't do this to me. To us."

"Do what?" Ed asks as he withdraws and walks around to face her. "Was I doing anything that you didn't like?"

"That's not even the point, and you know it."

"Of course, it isn't."

Ed just sighs in resignation.

"Well, then, I think it's time to show you what you'll win if you get your heart's desire!" Ed puts on his bowler hat – the one Oswald had just flung down to him, seemingly appearing out of nowhere. He tips it to her and then says, "Shall we begin?"

A truncated 'what?' is her only response.

"And, that's a yes!" Ed crouches down again to lift Jim to an upright position. Thankfully, he's still alive – his bleeding has stopped. He turns to Lee and says, "I would have asked for your help, but you weren't that helpful last time."

Lee just rolls her eyes. She's tied to a chair.

"Wow, that's freaky," Ed says as he pushes his glasses up his nose and stares at the motionless Jim. "He looks worse than one of those wax museum jobs, doesn't he?"

"He's a _person,_ Ed. Will you reverse his poisoning and let him be now? I know you have an antidote."

Ed licks a couple of his fingers and then raises them to Jim's cheek. He circles them around on his skin as if he's buffing something out. "Doesn't look human to me."

"Ed!"

Ed acquiesces.

"Alright, alright. But we need to discuss what you're signing up for if you marry this stiff." He turns back to face her, beginning his signature laugh, but is surprised to see the expression on her face and stops. "Lee, you're laughing, too."

"No, I'm not."

Knowing she's lying, a smile slowly forms and plays about his face. She really _does_ think he's funny. He may just be able to win her over after all, without making any drastic moves. Oswald was wrong.

"Can you please get on with it, Ed?" Lee commands, pulling against her restraints a little.

"Fine," Ed says. "Let's start with your vows. Jim is going to break every single one of them."

Lee cocks her head to the side. "Is that so?"

"Yes," Ed says emphatically. "'To have and to hold?' He'll hold you back alright - but that's already been established."

"No it –"

"Let's discuss 'for better or for worse,' shall we?" Ed interrupts.

"Let's," Lee says wryly.

"When he was at his worst, he pushed you away. Time and again."

Lee purses her lips. She not going to justify him with an answer – she knows he's right.

"When he was about ready to serve that long sentence at Blackgate, what did he do?"

Lee looks down. One of her hands pick at an invisible speck of lint on her impeccable dress, despite the fact that it's being held in place by the rope he had tied her up with.

"You were pregnant with his _child,_ Lee, and he told you to leave him alone!"

"You put him in that position, Ed! You killed Kristen – the woman you were supposed to love – and then framed **Jim** for it. He was innocent!"

"Yes," Ed smiles as if he's caught a mouse in a trap, unfazed by her emotional outburst. He puts a finger up in the air. "But that only means that Jim _knew_ he was innocent and gave up on you and your baby anyway."

"You're a real piece of work, Ed," Lee says, seething.

"Moving on. Okay! Next, we have 'for richer or poorer,'" Ed surveys the place, pretending to survey Gotham City, even though that would be impossible, given the glitter gloom trap he's got everyone in - only those surrounded by crystalline glitter can even see each other. "Given the state of this city, I'm not sure that's even relevant, do you?"

"Cut the crap, Ed, and untie me."

"No can do. Okay, _**next**_ . . . 'in sickness and in health' –"

"You're the only sick one, here, Ed."

Her words hurt and his heart misses a beat – a painful one. "There's no reason to get nasty, Lee."

"No reason?" she asks flabbergasted. "_NO REASON?_"

"I'm trying to _help_ you," Ed says gently, putting a hand on her shoulder, which she immediately shrugs off. "I'm here to rescue you."

"From who? Jim?"

"Precisely."

"Like I said, you're sick, Ed. _Sick_."

"That never stopped you before."

"That was a mistake."

"Was it?" Ed asks.

She doesn't answer, just stares back at him defiantly.

"Okay then."

Ed shuffles his feet, his entire body feeling the sting of her rejection. But even if she doesn't like it, he has to do this. _For her._ A part of him still cares for her even if those feelings won't be returned and therefore, he _must _continue.

"Okay, moving on."

Ed nervously fiddles with the cuffs of his suit and straightens his hat. This is the important one – the crux of his argument. If she doesn't understand this . . .

"Last but not least, good ole' boy Jim here is supposed to love and cherish you. _Forever_." Ed walks over to the frozen Jim and places an elbow on his shoulder. "You think you can do that, Jimbo?"

Then, he looks back at Lee, whose eyes are shooting daggers at him.

"I think not," Ed says matter-of-factly as Lee starts to squirm in her chair. "What? Is a whopping dose of the truth too hot for you to handle?"

"Please don't, Ed."

"Don't _what?_ Point out lover boy's fatal flaw? Prove that he's unable to cherish you? Let's discuss the _one thing_ above all others that you can't stand about him."

"Please," Lee whispers so quietly that Ed has to step closer to her and bend down to hear what she's trying to say. "Please don't do this in front of Jim. He doesn't know that I told –"

"What? And abandon my argument for why you shouldn't even be considering marrying this man?" Ed gives a little 'oops' and then says, "Oh, did I say 'abandon?'"

He laughs merrily at his own joke before returning to the matter at hand.

"Sorry, Lee, but he abandons you at every turn. He doesn't consider you more important than his job – saving _strangers _is more important to him than anything you could offer. He can't even protect you in the line of duty and you know it. He will always choose to help others before he helps you."

Lee starts crying. Ed looks over at Jim.

"Oh, lookie here, I must have hit a nerve." Ed reaches up to touch the wetness that has formed around Jim's eyes. "Looks like he might have regrets."

"He does, Ed. And I understand now that he's truly sorry for what he's done in the past. He doesn't want to be that way anymore. Please, you've made your point. Please let both of us go now."

"No!" Ed shouts. "He abandons you again, and again, and again. Don't fool yourself, Lee. It's never going to stop, whether it's his job, his self-loathing, or some fucked-up need to be a hero. I don't want that for you. I don't want to see you trapped in that life."

Lee looks down, and he can tell she's crying even harder now.

He crouches down by her chair so he can look her in the eye.

"He left you pregnant and alone out of some overblown sense of self-pity." Ed places a hand on her thigh and looks at her in earnest. "And, don't you remember how he left you alone to die on the floor of the GCPD when those hooligans broke in and took over in remembrance of Jerome? **I** was the one that came to save you that day, Lee. Jim was too busy saving others. You'll _never_ be his first priority - and you deserve better than that."

Ed stands up and draws his gun, pointing it straight at Jim's head.

"Till-"

_**Bang! **__Jim falls back. Like a slab, he hits the floor - dead, wooden._

"Death-"

_**Bang! **__Ed stands over him, pointing the gun straight down at his head._

"Do-"

_**Bang! **__Lee finally screams . . ._

"You-"

_**Bang! **__. . . and then, she freezes._

"Part-"

_**Bang! **__Ed blows at the nonexistent smoke coming from the barrel of his gun._

Five bullets to the head. Yup, looks like Jim's as dead as a doornail.

Ed stands over his corpse and says with contempt, "You were _never_ good enough for her."

Then he goes back to Lee and begins the slow process of untying her.

"_Why did you do that, Ed?"_ she cries. "You jealous, insane –"

"I'm not jealous," Ed says calmly. "I did this because I loved you once. But I don't want you back - and don't worry, I never expected to win you back this way, either."

"You don't want me back, but you killed Jim anyway? Why would you -"

"I _care_ about you, Lee. That's never going to change. Just like you told Jim right before Gotham fell that a part of you will always love a part of him."

Her mouth drops open in surprise. "You overheard that conversation?"

"Yes. And I feel the same way about you," he sighs. "That's why I did this. I saved you from a lifetime of disappointment with a man who was destined to hurt you, destined to _fail_ you, over and over again by his very nature. He couldn't help it, Lee – that was who he was – he was _never _going to change."

The last of the bindings come off.

"And you _know_ that," Ed says as they both stand up.

Lee goes over to Jim, placing a hand on his chest. His heart is not beating - he has definitely passed. She is overcome by sobs, but eventually she leaves the corpse of the man she loved behind.

Without warning, she walks right into Ed's personal space and screams at him.

"I HATE YOU!"

Then, she starts pounding on his chest in anger.

"You sick, jealous FUCK!"

He wants to pull her close into him, to soothe her anger, to make everything okay again. But, he resists the urge - he knows nothing will ever be okay again. He has caused her this pain, even if it's for her own good.

As her rampage slows down he tells her, "There's a fine line between love and hate, Lee. A VERY fine line."

"There sure is," says Oswald, appearing as if out of nowhere with a smug smile and a pat to Ed's back. "Are you done rescuing your damsel?"

"Damsel?" Lee asks, offended. Her hand goes to her hip.

"Yes, Oswald," Ed says. "I saved the princess."

"What?!" demands Lee. "What is this? Am I nothing more than a game to you?"

"What I understand, but which you fail to," Edward says. "Is that life is nothing but a series of games - endless puzzles to be solved. I freed you from you little game with Jim. Now you're free to pursue a more satisfying one."

"Well, it certainly won't be with _you_."

"Like I said, I'm not expecting it to be. Our game ended with the blade we shared. Do you remember the final time our lips met in that delicious kiss? You can consider that my parting gift to you."

"I stand by what I said, Ed. You're _sick_." She turns to Oswald. "You need to get your friend some help."

"No can do. I like him just the way he is." Ed and Oswald exchange conspiratorial smiles. Then, Oswald sticks out his tongue at Lee.

Lee rolls her eyes and then says to Ed, "Have you ever heard of a little something called 'divorce'? If things with Jim had gone bad – "

Ed stops her, "You'll be happier this way. Trust me."

Lee goes back to Jim's body and sits beside it, mournfully placing a hand on top of his immobile one. "You made me a widow today, Ed. There's no happiness to be found in that."

"I warned you that you were playing a dangerous game when you messed with my heart."

She responds with silence. Ed ponders for a bit and then comes up behind her to place a comforting hand on her shoulder - she lifts hers up to meet it.

He bends down to kiss the top of her head, and whispers, "I meant what I said, Lee. A part of Edward Nygma will always love a part of Lee Thompkins."

She nods in acceptance . . . of everything.

_Those were the only vows taken at the GCPD that day._

FIN


End file.
